Monday's letters: Different world

Published: Monday, December 17, 2012 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, December 14, 2012 at 5:38 p.m.

To the editor: In response to Louise Peterson’s letter in the Dec. 2 edition, she was so right regarding vocational classes in the schools. When my stepson was a junior in high school, we were talking about education, and he said college is not for everyone and I agreed. But you have to have a craft to be successful in life, I told him.

In the summer after his junior year, he worked as an intern for a company for six weeks and was then chosen for its four-year apprenticeship program after he completed high school. Upon completion of the apprenticeship program, he was given a full-time position. He currently makes $28.50 an hour and is a taxpayer.

Ms. Peterson, you are so right — there is so much emphasis placed on every child to attend college, but there are other very good alternatives for those who feel college is not for them. How many college graduates are unemployed?

There are so many younger kids being left behind who feel college is not for them. There was a time when college was essential. It’s a different world today.

Yogi Goins

Flat Rock

Ugly rhetoric

To the editor: I am writing to protest, in the strongest terms possible, the publication of the column “And the winner is … dirty campaigning” by John Fogle in the Dec. 7 paper.

Mr. Fogle makes sweeping comments about Democrats in general, using phrases like “vicious negative campaigning,” “the lack of honor among Democrats” and “modern Democrats have much lower standards of decency.”

How does publishing this kind of vitriol advance a civilized discussion about the vital issues this country is facing? Mr. Fogle is a prime example of that subset of Republicans who cannot believe their candidate lost. The anger and bitterness at that loss seems to be settling and hardening. As a proud Democrat, I will not stoop to his level of name-calling and ugly rhetoric.

He is looking to explain Romney’s loss with accusations of dirty campaigning. Well, you know what? That’s OK by me. Because as long as the Republicans look to those lame (and bogus) excuses, they will not be examining the real reasons for the loss: a candidate who stood on all sides of every issue, an ideology that alienated almost every demographic group, and policies that would push us back to the 1950s.

Carole Repici

Hendersonville

Hollow words

To the editor: We have a president who never had a real job in his life and a secretary of the Treasury who did not pay his personal income taxes for four years telling the 52 percent on Americans who do pay taxes how we must support their spending programs. They do not even have a program to reduce government spending, only more spending.

When the secretary of Treasury was caught not paying taxes, he paid up, but with no penalties, which all other citizens would have been charged.

<p>To the editor: In response to Louise Peterson’s letter in the Dec. 2 edition, she was so right regarding vocational classes in the schools. When my stepson was a junior in high school, we were talking about education, and he said college is not for everyone and I agreed. But you have to have a craft to be successful in life, I told him.</p><p>In the summer after his junior year, he worked as an intern for a company for six weeks and was then chosen for its four-year apprenticeship program after he completed high school. Upon completion of the apprenticeship program, he was given a full-time position. He currently makes $28.50 an hour and is a taxpayer.</p><p>Ms. Peterson, you are so right  there is so much emphasis placed on every child to attend college, but there are other very good alternatives for those who feel college is not for them. How many college graduates are unemployed?</p><p>There are so many younger kids being left behind who feel college is not for them. There was a time when college was essential. It’s a different world today.</p><p><em>Yogi Goins</em></p><p><em>Flat Rock</em></p><h3>Ugly rhetoric</h3>
<p>To the editor: I am writing to protest, in the strongest terms possible, the publication of the column And the winner is dirty campaigning by John Fogle in the Dec. 7 paper.</p><p>Mr. Fogle makes sweeping comments about Democrats in general, using phrases like vicious negative campaigning, the lack of honor among Democrats and modern Democrats have much lower standards of decency.</p><p>How does publishing this kind of vitriol advance a civilized discussion about the vital issues this country is facing? Mr. Fogle is a prime example of that subset of Republicans who cannot believe their candidate lost. The anger and bitterness at that loss seems to be settling and hardening. As a proud Democrat, I will not stoop to his level of name-calling and ugly rhetoric.</p><p>He is looking to explain Romney’s loss with accusations of dirty campaigning. Well, you know what? That’s OK by me. Because as long as the Republicans look to those lame (and bogus) excuses, they will not be examining the real reasons for the loss: a candidate who stood on all sides of every issue, an ideology that alienated almost every demographic group, and policies that would push us back to the 1950s.</p><p><em>Carole Repici</em></p><p><em>Hendersonville</em></p><h3>Hollow words</h3>
<p>To the editor: We have a president who never had a real job in his life and a secretary of the Treasury who did not pay his personal income taxes for four years telling the 52 percent on Americans who do pay taxes how we must support their spending programs. They do not even have a program to reduce government spending, only more spending.</p><p>When the secretary of Treasury was caught not paying taxes, he paid up, but with no penalties, which all other citizens would have been charged.</p><p>Great bunch of leaders.</p><p><em>Leonard A. Hall</em></p><p><em>Brevard</em></p>